Most of the remaining natural resources in the world are in remote sparsely populated areas and at this time there is a great deal of activity in the remote areas of the world from the efforts of major countries and companies to open up future resources to development. To develop any resource in a remote area, a large number of men and equipment must move back and forth on the ground to find, define and develop a reserve. Surveying, seismic work drilling, geological examination and many other types of field work are currently done in four-wheel drive trucks. These trucks can, given enough time, go almost anywhere the field operations require them to go but speed is in most instances severely hampered by mud all spring, snow all winter and bumpy ground all year. In many thousands of miles of off-road driving the speed of a four-wheel drive truck is limited to only three to five miles per hour on seemingly flat or gently rolling terrain because the small surface irregularities of the ground will tear up the truck and bruise the driver at speeds over five miles per hour. Perhaps one of the worst surfaces is the sagebrush flat of the Western United States, but this area of the country is subject to ever increasing vehicle travel as exploration for oil, uranium and other vital resources continues to grow.
Even when the vehicle operator carefully stays below five miles per hour on rough ground and does not abuse his equipment, his truck will seldom be of any value after about 40,000 commercial miles. For a typical field operation a truck usually only lasts about ten months simply because of the beating it takes from the surface irregularity of the ground.
It seems obvious that a better form of off road transportation is needed. The easiest solution would appear to be a vehicle which can fly just above the bumps but once the vehicle becomes an aircraft, costs and complexity seem to make it uneconomical to use in the field. Helicopters are great to use in the field but at a current rate of some one hundred twenty-five dollars per hour they cannot compete with the truck for much of the market. The ground effect machine can fly just over the bumps with comparatively little power and is a simple machine but the pure ground effect machine has inherent disadvantages.
In order to fly very high over the bumps without a helicopter type power requirement, the ground effect machine must have a large base area. This big, saucer-like machine cannot be transported on public highways or fit through narrow canyons or gates so the base must fold up into a smaller truck-size package for practicality. Moreover, a ground effect machine cannot stop as quickly as a wheeled vehicle, or turn as tightly, or climb a steep hill.
The multi-terrain vehicle overcomes these disadvantages and provides a vehicle that can transport itself over level terrain by a set of retractable steering wheels and a set of drive wheels. In addition, the base which comprises foldable skirts can be folded down to the size of a small vehicle which can be driven around on its wheels or easily transported on public highways but still able to unfold its base and fly over the bumps out on the job.